Steve Simms's Blog, page 257
March 4, 2019
Love isn’t always a cute Hallmark card
We can’t diminish God’s love. However, we can disrespect it, reject it, rebel against it, and alienate ourselves from God. God’s love for you isn’t a license for you to disrespect Him and ignore His commandments.
Love is not always a Hallmark card. Sometimes it speaks truths we don’t want to hear. If love means “approval,” then nobody loves me, because nobody approves of everything I say and/or do, not even God.
Many people look to sin to give them pleasure, but real, eternal joy comes from letting the risen Jesus live in and direct you. Rebellion against God and His commandments creates trouble. Repentance follows God away from self-caused trouble and into restoration.
Universal prenatal care and compassion seem much more loving than selective prenatal killing. If people are aborted they can never grow up and commit suicide, but that seems like a drastic and unloving suicide prevention technique.
The best suicide prevention technique is God’s forgiveness, deliverance, and healing that comes from an intimate, personal, and submissive relationship with the resurrected Jesus Christ. Why not call on Him, give Him your free will, and begin to follow and obey Him today?
A book helps me follow Jesus!
Some people claim to “follow Jesus, not a book,” but if they don’t obey the Bible, inspired by Jesus, do they really follow Him? The Bible’s objective testimony helps us discern between the risen Jesus & a counterfeit Jesus (what Paul calls “another Jesus”).
People who want to separate Jesus from the Bible’s revelation, seem to want a Jesus they can make fit their own specifications. To make Christianity and the Bible a smorgasbord where you can just choose the parts you like, is to make your feelings the standard for faith.
It’s dangerous to think you can discern the voice of God 100% by yourself without the anointed testimony and teaching in the Bible. It’s also dangerous to reject the clear moral and theological teachings of the Bible because you think that you know better.
We are fortunate to have the writings of apostles, prophets, and others inspired by God, but if we ignore the Bible it won’t help us. I think some Christians criticize and/or ignore the Bible because they don’t like being held accountable to God’s moral standards.
Who headed up the last Sunday morning Christian meeting you attended? The body of Christ (Christ’s ekklesia) isn’t built on what Simon says (Simon Peter aka the Pope, the Bishop, or the Pastor), but on the living Jesus and His presence with and direct, supernatural revelation to the individuals who gather in His name.
The boldness and love of the early Christians came from Christ living inside of them, not from great sermons that they heard. One of the ways the risen Jesus reveals Himself powerfully to me is by reading the Bible. I believe the Bible’s supernatural because it powerfully speaks to my heart and although ancient it speaks to right where I am. Daily Bible reading, with an open heart, will rock your boat and transform your life! Try it.
If the Spirit is quenched, a Christian meeting needs human control, but if the Spirit is allowed to freely work, He takes charge. Reading Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel, as I was writing this post, I saw: “Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit.”
Let Jesus be the GPS on the dashboard of your heart. (Then He will personally direct you where you need to go.) Make war against the wrong in your own heart. Win within by aligning with God and His Word.
Remember that true prophetic thinking breaks with the mold of culture and religious tradition, and aligns with God and His Word. (That’s why Bible prophets were persecuted.)
March 2, 2019
Society is training people to follow their own desires. Church should train them to follow the living Jesus instead.
Christ calls people to follow Him. Nowadays they’re following their feelings, desires, and compulsions.
Christ calls people to repent of their sins. Nowadays people are repenting of their gender.
Christ doesn’t offer His approval of our will. He offers us His forgiveness, His presence, and His power to align with His will.
If disapproval is hatred, then we’re all in trouble, because nobody approves 100% of anybody’s behaviors, not even their own. True repentance is to let God repair, redirect, and restore you to His will, not your own.
Prophet Jeremiah said: “The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin.” Reformer Martin Luther is seen as a hero for speaking against church as usual. Perhaps we need reformer voices today.
Grace is like a free tour of London. There’s no cost for the ticket but you have to get on the bus and stay with the Tour Guide.
Love is kind and compassionate to people, but it doesn’t necessarily approve of their decisions and behaviors. It takes courage to choose to be kind to people, no matter what they do or how you feel about them. Dare to be brave!
Kindness is conspicuously underrated, courageous, and contagious. (Search: Off the Race Track–From Color Blind to Color Kind.) Christians need to actively pursue God’s vision of Christ’s body connecting as people from “every kindred & every tribe.”
If you’re with someone you love, you listen to them and interact with them. Why don’t we train Christians to do that with Jesus? When people let the risen Jesus live in and direct them daily, they don’t insist on their desires, but lovingly submit to Christ. Christianity is being so transformed by the risen Jesus living in & through us, that we no longer exalt or obey our own desires.
When you know Jesus you have an inner desire to say no to the things that distract you from noticing His radiance and splendor.
Preaching meetings are okay, but they are not as effective as involving and activating people as open, Spirit-led sharing is. All preaching and no Spirit-led interaction makes church a weekly lecture series.
Christian leaders should be more like officials in a football game than a quarterback or coach. They should not be the center of attention.
If no one claimed ownership in a church, no one would be offended by the idea of Spirit-led interaction as taught in the Bible in 1 Corinthians. 14. If you are willing to hear from God, read the Bible with an open heart and He will speak inside you as you do. Right now is a good time to get up and go do something that God is telling you to do.
When Jesus was with His early disciples they didn’t follow a program. Isn’t He with us today? Both traditional and contemporary church services are accepted today. Perhaps it’s time to accept sermon-free church as well.
High church is formal. Low church is less formal. Sermon-free church is informal and interactive.
February 28, 2019
COGIC Pastor’s review of Off the RACE Track
My friend and Church of God in Christ (COGIC) pastor, Larry Britton, reviewed my book:
“Steve Simms’ book, Off the Race Track, is thoroughly informative and creative in its approach to sharing many of the details of the African American experience. The profound insights, regarding some of the salient facts of the African American experience, are awe-inspiring. (Especially since he is Caucasian.)”
“As a 66 year old African American man I have lived through legal segregation; participated in the 1960’s protests; and been victimized by Jim Crow laws, and job and social discrimination all my life. It is powerful to attest to the truths detailed in this book. The ‘Bill of Rights’ section is profound.”
(Available in paperback & Kindle @ https://amzn.to/2Vkc9AM.)
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February 26, 2019
Church should let imperfect people listen to God
Don’t look for a perfect church, but for a church where imperfect people are trusted to hear God, listened to and not just lectured.
When church replaced the awe of God for the sound of a sermon, it became more about lecture than about life. Since “talk is cheap,” why does church focus on sermon illustrations instead of on living demonstrations of the risen Jesus?
When a church meets to let Christ be active in people’s lives, the most amazing miracles begin to happen. Everyday people meetinng in an environment where they’re free to hear and obey God’s Spirit demonstrate that interactive, Spirit-led participation is much more powerful than mere lecture learning.
Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” — not “the directions, the religion, and the lecture.” For God to show us His glory, we need to get our religion, our control, & our sins out of His way. (“Quench not the Spirit.”) Here’s a challenge: The next time you go to church, don’t passively quench the Spirit, but listen to God and do whatever He prompts you to do.
Titles separate people. A title puts one above another and opens the door for comparison, control, intimidation, and inequality. The expression “pastoral leadership” isn’t in the Bible, but the words “led by the Spirit” are.
I believe that Christ followers are called to seek truth and love, not political advantage. When the desire for political correctness replaces the desire for moral correctness the concept of ethics becomes meaningless. However, the determination to be kind enriches people’s lives much more than the determination to be in control does.
Both weeds and vegetables grow in a human heart. If you don’t discern the difference and remove the weeds, you’ll be a mess.
People’s approval is a poor substitute for a clear conscience
When your conscience approves of your behavior, you aren’t needy for people’s approval. However, it’s hard to be happy if you continually ignore the disapproval of your conscience.
No one has the right to make you approve of something that you believe is wrong. Social approval is a poor substitute for a clear conscience.
Sin begins as fun, but before you’re done, the fun leaves you stuck in a ton of guilt. For freedom run to Jesus, the Son of God! Christ’s forgiveness will remove your guilt far more effectively than other people’s approval will. Trying to clean your conscience without Christ’s forgiveness is like trying to clean your body without any water.
A troubled conscience is the “still, small voice” of God, guilty thundering from within. TVs are in restaurants and bars a d scads of public places. Have they have become America’s adult pacifier?
Forgetting the meaning of two abandoned words (sin and virtue) has caused our society to spin in confusion.
Christ in you is like a Geiger counter. When you start to sin He sounds off. Then you have to stop sinning or silence Christ.
Guilt doesn’t come from other people judging you. It comes from violating your own conscience. Guilt-free sinning is an oxymoron. God’s grace makes people guilt-free by both forgiving us and freeing us from sin’s control.
Guilt is sin’s payday. Long after the pleasure of sin has faded away, the pain of guilt continues to “pay it forward” and torment your day.
Guilt, produced by sin, will continue to away at our mental health.
Humans have always tried to explain away (or justify) specific sins, however, today, society even denies the existence of sin. “I’m no longer a slave to sin;” when you can honestly sing that, you can be certain you have received God’s grace!
The best way to deal with guilt isn’t to medicate it, but to admit, apologize for, and put away the sin that is causing it. Cut short your guilt trip. Run to Jesus; stop your sin; bask in the joy of His love & forgiveness!
If grace has unlocked your sin cell, don’t sit, stuck in the same ole jail. Get up, walk out, and live in Christ’s glorious freedom!
For freedom from guilt and sin, walk in the light. Regularly confess to God and to a person you trust.
Love offers care, compassion, and Christ’s forgiveness and deliverance to those caught in sin. It doesn’t excuse sin.
Jesus, flashing like lightening on a dark, rainy night, continually enlightens my soul.
Jesus said that rivers of living water will flow from within you (not from listening to a preacher). Without Jesus’ rivers of living water freely flowing from within me, I feel (and look) like a wilted flower.
Wilted flowers don’t need a sermon, they need water. (Perhaps Christians need Christ’s living water more than another sermon.)
A real “come to Jesus meeting” isn’t a stern, corrective lecture. It’s a gathering of surrender and submission to the risen Jesus!
Making shadows & fears disappear
Shadows and fears mean light is being blocked. Remove the blockages and the shadows and fears go away!
Racial shadows hang over America. We need to look beyond our shadowy “race track” & dare to see the light. Perhaps the shadows of racism linger so persistently in America because the “color-blind-card” blocks the light of racial healing.
Never wonder why shadows hang over you when you violate your conscience. It’s because you’re blocking God’s Light.
When your life is darkened by sin’s shadows, God will freely give you power to turn around and walk in His Light. It’s called grace!
When you partially block out the Holy Spirit’s light (quench the Spirit) it creates shadows in your life and you can’t see clearly. If the shadows in your life are really dark, it means that behind you, God’s Light is shinning really brightly. Turn around and see.
If you’re standing in a shadow, that means God’s Light is near. Take a few steps and you’ll be out of the shadow & into His Light! Why stay stuck in the shadows of your sins? Stepping out of those shadows and into God’s gracious Light will set you free!
When you block God’s Light, you cause spiritual shadows. Try not to do that.
Live your life directly under the Son and shadows won’t be able to stalk you. Also, reading the Bible daily, with an open, humble heart, will shine Christ’s Light inside you and make your inner shadows disappear.
February 20, 2019
The “elephant” in the womb (big, bold antiabortion statements)
Many people don’t want to talk about the elephant in the womb: “Abortion takes an innocent human life.”
Perhaps those of us who have escaped the womb shouldn’t condemn to death any of those who are still there.
Abortion makes it fatal to be an unwanted prenatal.
To kill a fetus cheats us all by devaluing every human life.
To be prejudice against a fetus and label it “not human” is a double standard, because everybody once was one.
I was a pre Roe v. Wade fetus, so my life was relatively safe, but since then about 70 million weren’t so fortunate as me (& you).
Abortion makes the womb a place of doom and gloom — a dungeon of unspeakable horrors rather than a giver of joyous life.
To say that some prenatal lives matter and that others don’t is discrimination and injustice!
When injustice is being done (and is supported by government), those who benefit from it want others to keep silent about it.
With all the noise and fanfare about human rights, most nations still deny the basic right to life to the most innocent human lives.
When a nation’s conscience is hard enough to kill and mistreat a fetus, it could potentially kill and mistreat any of its citizens.
There are two situations where Americans have claimed the “right” to other people’s lives–abortion and slavery.
The supporters of slavery didn’t want to be slaves themselves and the supporters of abortion don’t want to have their life aborted.
Slaveholders claimed that they were righteous in their actions. So do abortionists.
In history, many Americans who didn’t agree with it were silent about slavery. Nowadays the same is true about abortion.
Since it’s wrong to abuse and disrespect human life based on skin color, isn’t it wrong to abuse and disrespect it based on its location in the womb?
Abortion says, life isn’t valuable unless it’s viable. Life support says, unviable life’s too valuable to let die. Which is right?
God gives life. Abortion takes it away.
Since “reproductive freedom” demands the “right” to choose to kill an unwanted prenatal child, should parental freedom also demand the “right” to choose to kill an unwanted child?
Jesus loves the little fetus, every fetus in the womb. Red and yellow, black and white, they’re all precious in His sight!
Normally the womb empties into life. Abortion abnormally empties it into death.
Prenatal care says that all lives matter. Abortion says some lives don’t. Which is right?
All lives matter including all 70 million or so prenatal lives that have been taken in the USA since Roe v. Wade.
The killing of the human fetus in America (about 70 million so far) hardens our hearts, devalues human life, and will defeat us.
America appears to have made abortion “the final solution” for unwanted pregnancy.
Abortion makes fetal life fatal.
To ignore and/or disobey your conscience is to endanger your mental health.
When we choose to do wrong and refuse to denounce that wrong and turn away from it, we abort our mental health.
February 19, 2019
Love & grace have moral backbone
Every person has the right to believe that some things are morally wrong. Love respects that right. It doesn’t accuse someone who disagrees with their moral principles, of “hating” them.
Grace sensitizes the human conscious. It doesn’t silence it. If our heart and behaviors haven’t been changed to align with biblical morality, we’ve received something other than God’s grace.
Grace doesn’t mean that sin doesn’t matter anymore. It means that we have been given power to live in victory over sin. Love and grace have moral backbone!
True grace makes us hyper, when we violate God’s morality. It motivates and empowers us to turn away from sin and to follow and obey the risen Jesus.
